FAQs

How long can I lend media from the library?

For UFZ employees, the lending period for books/CDs is normally 4 weeks. Items will be renewed automatically 24 times (each renew for 4 weeks), if they are not on a waiting list. You don't have to renew the items yourself. You can use your user account on online catalogue (Login with your UFZ system account) to see your reservations, interlibrary loans and other items. External users are permitted to use our library as a reference library, i.e. they are not allowed to lend media from it.


How can I access the literature in Halle and Magdeburg?

Halle:
The library in Halle is run by Katharina Klemm  (Tel. (0345) 558-5525, katharina.klemm@ufz.de ). If you need to lend media from Halle, please contact her. Mrs Klemm can copy articles for you.


Magdeburg:
The library in Magdeburg is run by Julia Sperfeldt (Tel. (0391) 810-9930, julia.sperfeldt@ufz.de ). If you need to lend media from Magdeburg, please contact her. Julia Sperfeldt can copy articles for you.



How do I order something by interlibrary loan?

Please order using the "interlibrary loan form" on the internet, which you will find on the library homepage under the following link: Interlibrary loan

You can log in with your normal UFZ login.

You are also welcome to send us an email to bibinfo@ufz.de with your interlibrary loan requests or use the UFZ request management .


What can I order by interlibrary loan?

You can order books or journal articles, which are not in the UFZ’s library stock (i.e. neither online nor in print form).


How long will my interlibrary loan take?

Since we request literature from various partner libraries, we are not able to say in advance how long your interlibrary loan will take.

From experience, book orders can take anything from 3 days up to 3 weeks. Journals that are ordered often arrive on the same working day. Interlibrary loans (books and articles) that are not free of charge will remain at the library lending desk for collection. In this case you will receive a notification email from us. Interlibrary loans without charges will be sent by internal mail.

What do I have to do to ensure that my publication appears on the "UFZ’s publications list"?

When your publication comes out, please send a copy of your publication (in print or PDF form) to the library. For all correspondence regarding publications, please use the e-mail address: publikationen@ufz.de . Please make sure that you quote the POF-number of the publication.


If the publication corresponds to the criteria of the UFZ’s guidelines on publication-acquisition and publication-release, then it will be registered on our publications database. The UFZ’s publications list is updated online once a week. UFZ's publications list

Here you can find a little training video:


Why doesn't my publication appear on the POF pages?

Publications, which appear on the POF-pages, are automatically generated from the UFZ’s publications list as a result of their POF-number. If you provide your POF-number correctly, you will guarantee a listing of your publications.
The following link takes you to the POFIV structure where you can search for the number of your project.


How can I find out if a journal is listed by ISI?

There are several options to find this out. The first option is to search the journal citation index (JCR). The science and social science editions can be searched separately. Recently listed journals and journals from the arts and humanities citation index are not included.
The second option is to search for the title of the journal in the field source of the Web of Science. A third option is through Thomson Scientific, where the so-called Master Journal Lists can be found and all indices with all journals are listed.


How can I find out the "Impact Factor" of a journal?

If the journal is listed in the Journal Citation Report (JCR), it has an Impact-Factor (IF). We have got online access to the JCR Science Edition and the JCR Social Science Edition from 2003. If you are looking for the impact factor of a specific journal, simply select the edition and the year of the publication on the left and then right click on "search for a specific journal". You can search using the title or the ISSN.

I am considering to publish a paper resp. my manuscript just got accepted. Is the library going to fund my publication? Whom should I approach for general inquiries about publishing?

The library funds Open Access publications in journals that are listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals and also eligible articles in the transformative agreements with Wiley, Springer Nature and Nature. Further Open Access monographs can be funded as well. For financial support of the library the corresponding author has to be affiliated to the UFZ. For more information visit our Open Access website or get in contact with Paul Meißner .

Who is my library representative?

You can find the current list of library representatives for each department under this link.


I have ordered a book for purchase. When will it arrive?

The time from ordering to receiving an item can vary.

Your order will be sent to a low-priced distributor as soon as possible. If you've ordered a copy of a German book, that has already been published and is available, it might only take a few days for your order to be processed and for your book to arrive. If you've ordered a copy from abroad, it might take 2-4 weeks.

Some titles are announced, but delivery is delayed or they only appear much later. You will be informed of this by e-mail.

If you really urgently need a book, please make a note of this on your order or contact us directly. We will do our best to speed up the process (i.e. through additional express service charges) and give priority to processing this order.

During peak times at the end of the year, there might be short-term delays.


How will I know when the book I have ordered has arrived?

You will be notified by e-mail, as soon as the book is available, and it will be reserved for you at the library loans desk.


Special purchase conditions for books are sometimes offered to conference participants. Am I allowed to purchase relevant literature for the UFZ?

Firstly, you need to make sure that the books are not already part of the UFZ’s stock.

Justified reasons for purchasing books at conferences would be for example very low prices, literature that is out of stock or not yet available, or savings on long-distance transport. It needs to be a considerable discount, because we usually get up to 18% off from the book retailer (depending on the publisher).


Where can I get the best overview of all online journals at the UFZ (purchased ones and free ones)?

By searching our WebOPAC. It is only possible to search for the title of a journal here however and not for specific articles.


What is EZB?

EZB is the German abbreviation that stands for "Elektronische Zeitschriftendatenbank" (database of electronic journals). Numerous national and international libraries feed this database with bibliographic data from journals that are free of charge or accessible with subscription.

Institutions can add their own subscriptions to this database to provide their users with a transparent overview of the online journals that are available.


Why can’t I access a journal showing an amber traffic light?

The reason for this could be that we used to enjoy shared access within the Helmholtz Community. This means that we had access to journals that we didn't actually subscribe to, but another Helmholtz center did. If that Helmholtz center later cancels that particular journal subscription, we are not always informed, meaning that the traffic light has not been altered to "red".

Please inform us, if you encounter such cases.


Why can I access a journal showing a red traffic light?

This might have the same reason, namely that we have shared access to a journal within the Helmholtz Community that we didn't actually subscribe to. If other Helmholtz centers do not inform us of this, the traffic light will remain red, but you may be able to access the journal.

Please inform us, if you encounter such cases.


What is "Science Direct"?

Science Direct is the user-interface of the publisher Elsevier. You can conduct searches for articles, but you will only get hits from those articles published in Elsevier journals.
To search for articles from many different publishers, it's better to use the Web of Science and use the link to the full-text version (if it is available for the UFZ): Web of Science

Where and how can I search for journals?

The UFZ’s journal stock is recorded in the catalogue. This catalogue is called WebOPAC in our system. It can be found on the library homepage under "catalogue" or here

To look for journals, select "journal" from the pull-down menu before you start your search.
Please take note of the actual stock (not all volumes from all years are available) and their respective locations.

Your contact person for titles located in Halle is Katharina Klemm  (Tel. 6025-5505, katharina.klemm@ufz.de ).

Your contact person for titles located in Magdeburg is Julia Sperfeldt (Tel. 6025-9930, julia.sperfeldt@ufz.de ).

In the catalogue, you will notice that a lot of the journals are linked to the online version. Please be aware that the print stock is not always identical with the online stock.


How can I order a journal that is not in the UFZ’s stock?

Please contact the library representative of your department if you would like to suggest the purchase of another journal.

The library representative will refer your suggestion for the purchase to the library and a decision will be made, depending on the financial situation.


Where are the journals located in the UFZ?

In Leipzig you will find the current volumes of printed journals in the reading room of the library on the ground floor. The titles are in alphabetical order and are open access. Older titles, which we no longer subscribe to, are in the stack in the basement. You can request these volumes.


Your contact person for titles kept in the library in Halle is Katharina Klemm (Tel. (6025-5525, katharina.klemm@ufz.de ).

Your contact person for titles kept in the library in Magdeburg is Julia Sperfeldt (Tel. 6025-9930, julia.sperfeldt@ufz.de ).


Where do I find the online journals?

All of the UFZ’s online journals are recorded in the UFZ catalogue .

Our online journals are also recorded in our elektronic journal library.
Here you can find numerous titles with open access in addition to our online journals.


Where can I check, whether a recent journal edition is already in stock?

You can find a current journal edition in our UFZ catalogue


Alternatively, you can directly contact:
Maria Buhlmann
Tel. 0341 6025-1813
maria.buhlmann@ufz.de


What are my options, if I'm looking for an article from a journal that does not belong to the UFZ’s stock?

Always look in our catalogue first:


If the title you are looking for is definitely not available, please take out an interlibrary loan. In order to do this, you need to click on "Service" on the library homepage and then on interlibrary loan.

You can login with your standard computer login.

Book order and interlibrary loan

User account: